Martinsburg daily gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1887-1887, 1887-05-10
In THE BATH ROOM.
A CLEAN OLD CUSTOM HANDED
DOWN FROM ANTIQUITY.

Tho various Styles or Baths, Their His
tory and Observation-Disclosures Primi-
tive Bath-Turlish and Russian Baths.
The Mud Bath.
The bath is. as old as the hills. 1t comes
down from the most remote antiquity.
The Egyptians used to battle in the Nile.
The Hebrews made bathing compulsory
by law, and the Mohammedans and Him
docs enforce it as duty Of religion.
Public baths were among the public insti.
buttons Of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks
and Romans If Pharaoh's lovely
daughter hadn't gone bathing in the Nile
Moses might never have been discovered
in the bullrushes. If Nausicaa and her
fair companions had not bathed them.
selves in the waters Of the sea the ship
wrecked Ulysses might never have been
rescued. So it will be seen that the bath
is hoary, venerable and patriarchal.
But the primitive bath was d simple
process compared with the elaborate bath
Of modern times. It was merely a
plunge into the limpid water Of some
flowing stream. Now the bath Is scien-
tific process, presided over by competent
attendants and regulated by the watch
and the thermometer. The hath most
popular with the American, people, bar
ring, of course, the domestic Tub, is the
Turkish bath. Why 1t is called = Turk
ish" surpasseth all understanding. It is
probably, though, because the Turks re-
cline in q most luxuriant bath In perfumed
water, while about the edges Of the mar
BILE basin grow fragrant flowers and bloom
ing rose trees, filing the apartment with
their ravishing scent. The Turkish bath
was first introduced into England about
the middle of the SOS by a noble.nan,
David Urquhart by name, who had re-
ceived the impression In the Orient. This
country adopted the Turkish bath about
twenty years ago.
TAKING TURKISH BATH.
Have you ever taken a Turkish bathi
No? Then, in the language OF Edwin
Forrest, you "have never risen to the dig
nifty Of being personally clean
When you go to q Turkish bath house
you first enter the Office, where you regis
ter, deposit your valuables and receive q
check for them. Then you pass into the
muctaly "Muctaly'' must be the Turk
for cool room. At any rate muctaly Is the
cool room. In one OF the numerous COM
partments of this apartment you disrobo
and invest yourself in a bathing garment,
then You pass into the warm room, the
tepidanunn, they call it, where You en-
counter temperature of 100 to 14O degs.
Fahrenheit Here you recline on a couch
until the perspiration is freely started.
When the skin has become sufficiently
soft and moist-the attendant frequently
passes his hand over the body to ascertain
If it has arrived at the proper state-yon
are ushered into the hot room, which is
plain English for the calidanum, as the
apartment is called, where the temperature
Is 40 degs higher than in the warm room.
In the hot room the attendants lay You
upon q heated marble slab, and the
perspiratiOn becomes more and more pro-
fuse, while the attendant thoroughly
manipulates the body with towel. From
this room You pass into still hotter hot
room, where the temperature is 22O to 24O
degrees. You perspire q few more times
In this room, when you are conducted into
the shampooing room, where enough tepid
water is sprinkled over you to remove the
perspiration. Then you are stretched ont
upon another marble slab and receive
another manipulation. The wind up con-
sists iii the attendant thoroughly washing
the body with lather Of soap and water,
sprinkling the bather over with q tepid
spray, and the bather taking q plunge in
the swimming bath.
THE RUSSIAN BATH.
The Russian bath Is SO called because
the Russians from long ago have INDUCED
iii hot vapor bath. The Russian bath
differs from the Turkish bath In this
essential particular: In Russian bath
the room IS filed with hot YapQr; In the